First Day Of Spring!

Procreation is in the air, and, the water...

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

During our first walk of spring today, Peggy, Dallas, and I came across this pool of Spotted Brown Trout trying to make it upstream to suitable spawning grounds.

We have seen trout in this pool before, during early spring of previous years, but it still takes my breath away when we come upon them.

These beauties were at least 14 to 16 inches in length.

Today is one of only two times during the year in which the day and the night are of equal length, and, once again, I bow in humble respect to the wonders of nature.

A Joyful Vernal Equinox to you!

Six Days In September --- Mountains, Music, & Merryment --- 34 Pictures, with links...

~Thursday~

September, 13th

MT. WHITNEY FISH HATCHERY Click on any photo to enlarge - all photos © 2007 jim otterstrom unless otherwise noted

Peggy and I went on vacation in September to the Eastern Sierras.

We rented a car---for the second time this year*---to visit friends in Independence, California.

Our friends, Brad & Amy, pictured below with their daughters, are wildlife biologists who live near this historic hatchery, built in 1917.

We arrived at their house shortly before noon and the girls immediately took off grocery shopping, so Brad & I had to entertain ourselves out in the back yard with beer, music, dogs, a few yarns, & the majestic Sierras as a backdrop.

:~)

*We rent a car between 2 & 4 times a year to visit friends, attend family gatherings, or just get away. We don't own one or use them in our daily lives.

~Friday~

Amy, Hannah, Claire, and Brad

Hatchery Pond

The hatchery pond is full of Rainbow Trout and sometimes Claire and Hannah get to feed the fish.

Claire & Hannah Pose
Among The Rocks Of 'Secret Valley'

On Friday, our first full day of Independence, Claire and Hannah wanted to take us on a hike to one of their favorite places, "Secret Valley".


On the trail to Secret Valley

Along the way to Secret Valley is an ancient dump containing priceless hidden treasures. Brad, Peg, and Claire head up the trail trying to catch up with Amy and Hannah, while Jim lags among the rusty old cans & broken bottles.

"Hold On Guys, I Could Use Some Of This Stuff!"

Peg & Jim's Treasure Trove

In just a few minutes we found and old whiskey bottle, two pieces of melted cobalt blue glass, the embossed bottom of a Sani-Clor bleach bottle, a piece of a fancy candy dish, and old perfume bottle stopper, a nicely rusted---pre pop-top---steel Lucky Lager beer can, and a metal California license plate tag from 1952, the year of Peggy's birth.

PRICELESS, I'm Tellin' Ya!!


~Entering Secret Valley~

As we entered Secret Valley, Gracie, the matriarch of our friend's three-dog pack, took a short cut, which led to my 'find of the day'.


The Remnants Of An Antique Electric Hotplate

photo by Amy

Thank you Gracie, for leading me to this great artifact I'll be adding to the collections of...

The Earth Home Botanical & Beer Gardens

~Last Outpost Museum~

& Temple Of The Lost Civilization.


WIDE OPEN SPACE

Peggy takes in the view, looking south, from the other side of Secret Valley.


And Yes, The Sky Really Was This Blue
Looking back at boulders we climbed over on the hike out of Secret Valley.


Dallas, Cooling Off In Oak Creek
Frolicking & quenching his thirst for quite some time in this cool rushing Sierra snow melt, Dallas was reluctant to come out of the water, after our long warm hike. I'm glad I wasn't wearing that coat!

After our morning hike we drove a few miles south to the

Manzanar National Historic Site

A World War II Japanese Internment Camp

Manzanar has been partially restored and is now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.

Below is a description from the NPS website.

"The Manzanar Interpretive Center includes 8000 square feet of exhibits, a bookstore, and theaters which show the site's award winning 22-minute film, 'Remembering Manzanar'.

Extensive exhibits span a century of history, from 1885 to the present, with a focus on the World War II relocation and internment of Japanese Americans from the west coast.

Exhibits include a large scale model of Manzanar War Relocation Center crafted by former internees, historic photographs and audiovisual programs, and artifacts. A large graphic includes the names of over 10,000 Japanese Americans who spent all or part of World War II at Manzanar."

My camera batteries died on this heart-wrenching historical excursion so I have no pictures, but I'm adding several links below so you can read about the place.

http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/manzanar1/page10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar

http://www.nps.gov/manz/planyourvisit/interpretive-center.htm

http://www.manzanarcommittee.org/

~NEXT ON OUR AGENDA ~

MILLPOND MUSIC FESTIVAL

September 14th, 15th, & 16th, 2007

We all had tickets for the 3-day, Inyo Council For The Arts, Millpond Music Festival in Bishop, California.

Peggy & I came to Millpond in 2003 on our way home from The Strawberry Music Festival just outside of Yosemite, and we loved it here.

This is the first chance we've had to come back.

Here's an accurately descriptive blurb from their website.
“Millpond Music Festival brings an eclectic and fine collection of traditional and contemporary music to one of the most intimate festival surroundings imaginable. Crossing ethnic and cultural lines in a celebration of life in all its diversity, you can immerse yourself in an exotic mix of world music, surrounded by the stunning mountains at autumn's first blush.”

There were 18 acts performing over 3 days, beginnng at 6 P.M. Friday, and ending about 9 P.M. Sunday. So much is going on at the festival that I didn't get pictures of all the performers, but some of our favorites are pictured below.

Other perfromers we liked included:

IDLE HANDS BLUEGRASS BAND

WILL KIMBROUGH

INCENDIO

THE WEST AFRICAN HIGHLIFE BAND

JOE CRAVEN* & DJANGO LATINO

THE JOHN JORGENSON QUINTET

*Joe Craven is a wonderful wild man, just visit his website and put a smile on your face.

~Saturday~

Ashley Broder & Jamie Laval

"Traditional Scottish, Irish, Bretagne and bluegrass music with innovative hints of classical refinement and ethnic music from around the world."
(read more at Ashley's website)

For us, this extremely talented Celtic duo was one of the highlights of Millpond this year.
We bought their great CD, Zephyr in the Confetti Factory, and Ashley Broder even posted my photo of them on her website.

TAARKA

David Tiller and Enion Pelter-Tiller, of TAARKA, create energetic magic with their "seismic gypsy hypno-jazz" on Saturday, following Ashley & Jamie, with another crowd-pleasing performance.

Saturday Night Jam At Nina's Camp

Nina (in lavender at the right), a friend of Brad & Amy's, plays her mandolin during a sweet little jam at her Millpond campsite on Saturday night. Some very good players dropped by to sit in.
At the left of the table in the background, you can see Peggy with Claire on her lap.

More players at Nina's Jam

Another view of Nina's jam, from the opposite side of camp, catches Brad playing some of his fancy guitar licks, just before the guy in the center, playing mandolin, started belting out some great vocals---and a fine yodeler he is too!


The Horse Flies

Rich Stearns, Judy Hyman, & Jeff Claus, of The Horse Flies

Composite photo by jim otterstrom

"A band that's earned a buzz ... The Horse Flies churn out swirling, addictive songs, blending tradition with invention." -- Rolling Stone

Peggy and I came to Millpond to dance, and The Horse Flies really delivered the groove with their driving, primal---almost trance-inducing---techno-bluegrass mind-bending rhythmic jams.

HAVING THIS MUCH FUN CAN'T POSSIBLY BE LEGAL!!!

From 9 P.M. til after midnight we danced non-stop, which took us into the wee hours of Sunday, September 16th, our 28th Wedding Anniversary, and what a fantastic way to celebrate it!


Fellow Revelers Dancing To The Horse Flies

As you can see, everyone was having a helluva good time!

That's Nina again, on the left.

She hiked for 4 days, alone, out of Sequoia National Park to attend Millpond, and then hiked 4 more days back in again.

~Sunday~

The Waybacks with Joe CravenThe closing act on Sunday night, still our Anniversary, was The Waybacks, a hot band of musical prodigies with dizzying chops. Another group that had everybody on their feet!

A Happy Blurry Peggy In Dance Mode
Just Before Sundown As The Waybacks Get Started
What can I say, it's hard to focus the camera when you're dancing.
That's Claire 'dancing' with Brad on the right.

What Is She Doing With That Guy?

~Love Is Blind~

Peg & Jim In Front Of The Waybacks
~photo by a thoughtful girl in the audience~

~MONDAY~

more adventures in nature On the way to Mount Whitney Road, and a day of hiking at the edge of the Golden Trout and John Muir Wilderness areas, Claire shows me and Dallas a cave that would be perfect for us to live in.
Good Find Claire! I'm Ready To Move In...
I think I even have a door to fit it!


A Little Farther Up The Road
We saw this beat up old Desert Tortoise on the shoulder, heading for the highway, so Amy very carefully moved it across the road so it wouldn't get run over.


WHERE WE WERE HEADEDThis sign was the end of the line for Dallas, he's not allowed in Wilderness areas.

Along the Way...
Peg & Claire on a log bridge


Hannah dropping pebbles in a pool...


Brad exploring nooks & crannies...


~Coming Back Down, After The Hike~
Looking Northeast toward Lone Pine...
...and no, we're not in an airplane!



WE'RE ON THIS ROAD!!!
An adventure in itself...

...but then came

~THE ALABAMA HILLS~

One of the most breathtaking places I've ever seen.
I''ll be coming back to this spot with my camera, for maybe a week, just to explore & take pictures!
I love this photo, it's the new backgound on my computer screen.
And it's just how it came from the camera, no color enhancement.


The end of a long day...
...back at Brad & Amy's place

~Tuesday~

On The Way Home

A stop at Fossil Falls





~and then~


Back Home, Tuesday Afternoon, September 18th???

The sky was full of water-dropping helicopters...

...because

photo by Jonny-the Computer Doctor

This is what had been going on in Big Bear while we were lost in bliss in the Eastern Sierra.
The town of Fawnskin, on the north shore, was still evacuated, but no homes were lost, and the fire was pretty much contained by that time.
Glad we missed it!
Sometimes Ignorance Is Bliss!

As in Life… There is much Beauty & Generosity in Death…

Click on photo to enlarge - a fallen Flicker - © 2006 jim otterstrom

Forty some years ago there was a Sycamore tree growing beside a stream along Old Topanga Canyon Road in the Santa Monica Mountains.

A friend and I, through the early hours of dawn, sat above the stream, hanging our legs off the edge of a large corrugated culvert, which guided a small tributary, beneath the pavement we had driven there on, into the stream below.

We languished there in the cool shade, for minutes running into hours, listening to the trickle of water falling between us into the creek below, watching flying insects, and birds, interact with one another in the exchanges that enable their lives and deaths.

Fluff drifted gently down from the surrounding trees to float away on the surface of the water in the soft morning light.

As we watched the drama of life unfolding there before us, this one particular Sycamore caught my eye. It had two trunks, one of which had tumbled over, and was lying across the stream.

The part of the tree still standing was in full summer leaf, healthy, vibrant, and full of life. But the fallen trunk, which had obviously been down for some time, lay decomposing along the sandy banks.

Upon closer observation, I became entranced with the teaming complexity of life being supported by the rotting fibers of the dead part of the tree. Young plants sprouted glorious green shoots from rich black compost, while shimmering, crawling, slithering insects of myriad description---clamoring, tunneling, over and through this visibly wholesome detritus---searched for nutrition, shelter, and procreation.

Sensitized that morning, to the intricately beautiful details of the non-human, after a long night spent in wonder and celestial celebration atop the jagged spine of the Santa Monica’s, I was experiencing, possibly, my most life-changing epiphany.

There was as much life in the dead part of the tree as in the living (& certainly more diversity), and I stood there for a long time, taking my first clear look into death, and what I’ve come to understand as everlasting life.

Since that fine day of my well-spent reckless youth, I no longer fret over the possibility of roasting eternally in the hell-fires of some control-freak God’s vindictive damnation, because I realized right then, that, like everything else, I’m simply going to metamorphose back into the wondrous matrix of the cosmos, where we continue our journey together for eternity, whatever that is.

There will be no Pearly Gates for me, no bean-counting Saint Peter with his ledger of sins and good deeds, no streets paved with cold hard Gold, nor flaming red Devil with his fork up my ass, and no reunion with long lost humans, family or otherwise.

My re-union will be in the giving back of my body---to the living Earth, as sustenance for the continuance of life, and, in the spirit of my consciousness, freed from the reductionism of being human---as my molecules, atoms, and energy once again wander & mingle among the elements of universality.

How do I know this?

I carefully observe the nature around me, seeing that I’m simply a tiny part of something very huge and complex, and I have faith in what I see.

Isn’t faith what your religion is based upon?

Now I’m in no hurry to die! I very much enjoy life as a human being, but the thought of my death doesn’t frighten me either, it’s purely the reality awaiting me when the days of Jim are over.

We are but cosmic dust, charged and electric, yet look around at all the beauty forged from the combination, and evolution, of these forces during the eons which have led to our lives today.

We hear much talk of “a better world in the hereafter” or “everlasting life in heaven above” from the churches and religions of our time, the same religions that would separate, anthropocentrically, our bodies from our souls, and our species from the rest of nature.

But anthropocentricity---the regarding of man as the central fact or final aim of the universe---is a selfish, ignorant, narcissistic notion, that, in life, deprives us of seeing, and fully enjoying, that we are an integral part of something much greater and more magical than ourselves.

Even in death, we humans continue this arrogant selfishness by having our bodies embalmed or cremated, entombed in wood, concrete or steel, thus depriving the earth of our rich life-giving nutrients for as long as we possibly can.

When I put a dead plant or animal on my dinner plate, I’m thankful for the bountiful generosity of nature, and the exchange of energy between life-forms, which allows this whole thing to continue and evolve. We are all part of the food chain.

And when I see a dead animal or a fallen tree, decomposing by the roadside---or along a trail in the wild---I see the even-handed generosity of nature, allowing with every loss, other lives to thrive and grow.

My body, soul, species, and the nature around me, including the whole of the cosmos, are all of one, and I have no fear of rejoining that larger self.

When that time does arrive, I’d like nothing more than to become healthful nutritious worm food.

Yes, these are thoughts of death, but to me, they’re not depressing or melancholy.

They are thoughts about our place in nature, about harmony, balance, and exchange.

They're the result of long-studied observations, and my deeply-felt optimism concerning the bio-centric, egalitarian laws of nature---and the interdependence, resilience, and self-perpetuating tendancy toward diversity inherent to life itself---in its passionate desire to persist and to flourish.

But these are probably not very welcome, comforting, or even fathomable observations to the anthropocentric, who would have the world, or rather, the entire universe, revolving around themselves.

Click on photo to enlarge - the decaying shell of a Carp

Trout Spawning...

Click to enlarge
We discovered a trove of trout in a small pool along one of the streams feeding Big Bear Lake this morning. I lost count at 30 and not one of these beauties was less than 18" long. We surmised they were spawning because there was a half eaten fish on the ground nearby, with talon wounds in its flanks, and orange eggs strewn everywhere. We figure one of the Bald Eagles we see each morning must've had trout for breakfast. I saw a Great Blue Heron standing by this same pool the other morning, but I suspect these fish are a bit large for a heron.